


starting over

by rangerhitomi



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Alternate Ending, Amnesiac Ultra Rare, F/F, hand-holding, new relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-12 02:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: When Misaki texts Asaka to come visit Card Capital, Asaka has no idea that she's about to have a second chance at starting a friendship with Tatsunagi Suiko.





	starting over

**Author's Note:**

  * For [minimiwrite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minimiwrite/gifts).



> A twitter prompt, "kissing after the world is saved"! i'm definitely stretching it lol. this is going to be a companion piece to an upcoming misakou fic so stay tuned for that...!

It’s been a while since Misaki texted her.

They’ve never been friends, really, more like rivals in a way, seeing as each has thoroughly embarrassed the other in Vanguard more than once. Texting each other, inviting each other out, whatever it is that friends do, that’s not them, and that’s okay with Asaka, since she has other things to concern herself with.

So when she gets a simple message, _Come to Card Capital tomorrow at eight,_ Asaka is both confused and suspicious. Confused because Misaki has never invited her over out of the blue, and suspicious because eight o’clock was nearly the store’s closing time and hardly anyone will be there and _there’s obviously some ulterior motive._ Misaki’s a smart girl. She must want something and knows of a way to get it.

Asaka considers not going. There’s literally nothing Misaki can do about it; she can send a sharply-worded follow up text or call and yell at her, but her Boss Lady persona doesn’t intimidate Asaka.

Then again, it could be a completely innocent get-together, and Asaka’s inherent suspicion of everyone who tries to be nice to her could end up backfiring.

She goes.

“Welcome!” the owner says brightly as she walks in, but she ignores him.

Card Capital is much the same as she remembers it; a clean store with all the latest boosters and rare singles in displays on the wall, neatly arranged card tables for those who care to stand or sit while cardfighting. (Asaka has always preferred to stand.) There aren’t many people in the shop, as many - including Card Capital’s famous regulars in Kai Toshiki, Sendou Aichi, and Katsuragi Kamui - have gone home for the evening.

But someone else has caught her attention.

Rather than sitting at the front counter with a book and a scowl, Misaki sits at one of the sitting tables with a relaxed smile on her face, next to a beautiful blonde girl who Asaka recognizes instantly as Tatsuragi Kourin. And, sitting across from her with her back to the door--

Asaka has to prop herself up on a standing table, in the middle of a fight between two local high school boys both playing Nubatama decks, because her legs nearly give out at the sight of Tatsunagi Suiko.

They're playing Vanguard. In a shop dedicated primarily to the game, this is not an unusual sight. But Asaka knows better; Suiko and Kourin are skilled cardfighters, after all, and this shop has been gaining popularity ever since the Asia Circuit. Suiko versus Kourin would be an interesting, heated fight.

Except now, with Misaki leaning close to Kourin, pointing at cards and explaining card effects, and Suiko holding the cards in her hands with fingers spread wide in a way that could not possibly be comfortable or useful.

Asaka must have a terrifying look on her face, because one of the boys whose table she was now leaning on with both hands steps back and holds his cards close to his chest.

"M-ma'am, could you... please..."

He cuts off with a squeak as Asaka casts him a look for calling her _ma'am_ \- she was still only a couple years their senior, after all - and the disruption is enough to catch Misaki's attention.

Misaki is never one to shy away from publicly humiliating anyone causing a ruckus in her shop, but this time she walks over to Asaka and pulls her away from the terrified children.

"What is this about?" Asaka hisses without preamble.

Misaki is unfazed. "They lost their memories after what happened with Link Joker--"

"After what Kai did, you mean."

It's unfair to place all the blame on Kai, as it was mostly what happened with Tatsunagi Takuto that led to Ultra Rare being brainwashed and memory wiped by some kind of supernatural Cray magic that Asaka didn't understand and probably never would; Asaka expects Misaki to come to Kai's defense, what with them being teammates or friends or whatever, but Misaki just kind of shrugs instead and plows on.

Ultra Rare had been shooting some commercial for an overpriced bottle of water when Rekka showed up with Vanguard cards; none of them knew how to play the game despite being corporate sponsors of it for the past three years. Kourin became interested and did some research into quiet card shops and discovered one close by that also happened to be the home base for several legendary cardfighters...

"I could recreate Kourin's deck perfectly," Misaki finished, glancing over at Kourin and Suiko, who were staring intently at the cards in their hands, "but I never saw Suiko's deck in its completion so..."

"You want me to help finish her deck."

Misaki looks away from Asaka, toward Suiko and Kourin, expression wistful. "It would mean a lot to her."

"To _her?"_ Asaka's voice rises, as does her temper. Despite Misaki laying a hand on her arm to quiet her, Asaka plows on. "She doesn't remember me! She doesn't care!"

Misaki's grip on Asaka's arm tightens, and Asaka lets Misaki drag her past the boys who seem to be packing up their decks, past the manager and the cat, out the doors. It takes everything in Asaka not to scream; how could Misaki think this was a good idea? After Link Joker? After everything?

"I'm not letting you put me through this again," she warns, finally tearing free. She crosses her arms. "For that matter, I don't understand why you're putting _yourself_ through this again."

Misaki needs no explanation for Asaka is referring to; she idly traces with one finger the hairband tied around her wrist. She's silent for a moment, contemplative. Finally she clenches her wrist with her hand. "She didn't remember me outright. But I don't think it's a coincidence that she found her way back here... I have faith that we can rebuild what we had and come out stronger for it."

There was a time when Misaki had been averse to letting people help her, no matter how much she struggled, when she suffered self-doubt and deep depression. But being a member of the Miyaji Academy Cardfight Club, getting closer to Kourin...

"It won't end like that again. I promise. Kourin... Suiko... they won't ever have to go through that again, and neither will we."

Asaka envies her this relationship. She and Suiko were never so close, and often antagonistic (or rather, Suiko tried so hard to make everyone around her like her and it drove Asaka mad), but Asaka had experienced such emptiness when Suiko was gone. Such loss would have been welcome at first, when Suiko worked with seamless effort to win over Ren's affections and a spot on the team that Asaka had worked so hard to fill for months and months. But over time, Suiko's constant presence was comforting in its own way, a calming, happy force in a high school club that was often cutthroat. She began to calm Asaka's fears that she wasn't good enough, and reminded her that she was more than worthy to represent Fukuhara alongside the likes of Suzugamori Ren.

Suiko's natural talent for Vanguard had infuriated Asaka at first, but now it might be an asset.

"Fine," Asaka says, voice quiet. "But I'm doing this as a favor to you and not for her."

Misaki smiles faintly as they head back inside. She's not stupid.

Asaka hesitates a moment before lowering herself into the chair next to Suiko, who turns to look at her with a warm, familiar smile.

"Hello, you must be the friend that Tokura was talking about. Are you here to teach me how to play Vanguard?"

* * *

 

Asaka helps Suiko rebuild her old Angel Feathers deck, the deck that Asaka knows almost as well as she knows her own. They go to Card Capital after hours, an allowance by Misaki to help them avoid what Misaki considers "unbearable fanboy behavior from some of the regulars," and practice. Suiko loses nearly every time, yet she persists, and she picks up on new combos and new techniques so quickly Asaka begins to suspect Suiko's memories of cardfighting are resurfacing. It's encouraging.

But the life of an idol is a busy one, and there are some weeks where Asaka doesn't see Suiko at all. It's different in many ways from their times together Before. (She's separated her life into two distinct time periods, Before Link Joker and After Link Joker. It helps her to have someone to blame for all the troubles in her life, and it might as well be the parasitic alien invaders that she blames for ruining her life.) Suiko used to be there, everywhere, all the time, a cup of coffee in hand for Ren, and eventually one for Asaka, too (the coffee was good, but Asaka had never admitted it); she was there with a word of encouragement when Asaka was frustrated; she was there with an extra sweater when the fight rooms at Fukuhara got too cold.

She and Misaki go to a couple of the Ultra Rare performances to lend support; Suiko and Kourin provide backstage VIP passes so they could visit after the shows. These are tickets Asaka never would have purchased on her own - too expensive! - but it's calming to be out of the sweaty, humid mass of people (and men who don't know what deodorant is) and somewhere relaxing and quiet.

After one show, part of a promotion for a local soccer club, Kourin pulls Misaki away, leaving Asaka and Suiko alone in Suiko's dressing room.

Maybe being out in the sweaty, humid mass of people would be better after all.

"Thank you."

Suiko sits next to her, their thighs touching. She also smells somewhat of sweat - and with all the dancing around and singing her heart out on the top of a stage with hot lights beating on her, it's no surprise - but it's not an unpleasant smell; perfume, Suiko had explained once, disrupts her nasal passages while she sings, so she sticks to plain deodorants and unscented soaps when performing.

(Asaka had once made the mistake of asking about a kind of perfume Suiko used to wear, at school. Despite Misaki saying that it would be fine if they knew of their pasts as representatives of Cray's earthly emissary, Asaka couldn't figure out any possible way of relaying this information without sounding utterly absurd, and ended up explaining away the mishap with a simple _I'm sorry, I was thinking about something else._ She wasn't sure Suiko fully believed her.)

"For what?"

"Coming to my shows." Suiko smiles. "Performing for rabid fans can be exhausting. I always feel safe and happy when I see you in the crowd."

"O-oh..." Asaka looks at her hands. She can feel her face heat up. "That's good."

Her heart skips a beat when Suiko reaches over and takes Asaka by the hand. Suiko's hand is also a bit sweaty but soft and warm against Asaka's perpetually cold ones. "We've only known each other a few short months, but I feel as though I've known you longer..."

 _It's because we have,_ Asaka yearns to say, but trying to convey the concept of mind-wiping aliens is beyond her. Someday she might ask Ren for his advice on telling Suiko about Link Joker, but for now Asaka just returns the pressure on her hand and looks up at Suiko.

"And for teaching me Vanguard," Suiko went on. "You seemed to know exactly what kind of deck I would be most comfortable with, too. It was incomplete, see, until you had me add Zerachiel. It's like you knew what I wanted before I did!" She laughs. Asaka's hand tightens. Her mouth goes dry.

"Actually," she manages, "I... I did."

Suiko's eyebrows shoot up under her bangs. "Oh? What do you mean?"

She should have asked Misaki how the conversation of life Before Link Joker had gone between her and Kourin, though she knows it might not have done any good because their relationship was... different, in many ways, than Asaka's complicated friendship with Suiko. It's nearly impossible to know where to start, but maybe _you enrolled as a student at Fukuhara High School_ is a good start, and when she says it, Suiko's face is nothing but puzzled. But she doesn't speak, and Asaka plows on; Suiko joined the cardfight club, had made her way onto the top team...

"That's disappointing," is all Suiko says when Asaka mentions that she'd lost to that Narukami user from Miyaji during the high school championships, and Asaka falters.

Here, things are more complicated.

The gulf between Before Link Joker and After Link Joker was a time Asaka barely remembers, having been Reversed for a portion of it (thanks to Suiko). But she doesn't want to blame _Suiko_. It wasn't her fault, it was Takuto's and that stupid alien parasite, and that's how she frames it, that Suiko was possessed by an evil entity trying to destroy Cray, and _god_ it sounds stupider and stupider with every word. But she can't stop now, because as stupid as it sounds, it happened, and no pretending the whole thing had been some kind of horrible fever dream could change the fact _that_ it happened.

Silence falls as Suiko takes it all in. For her part, she looks less skeptical and more contemplative, yet Asaka belatedly notices that Suiko is still holding her hand.

"Why don't I remember any of this?" she asks after an eternity.

"The being that controlled your memories..." Asaka frowns. She doesn't really know what happened to Takuto; Ren had been infuriatingly tight-lipped about anything that had happened on that rooftop, and the only ones who might truly know where Takuto went are Kai and Aichi. "Disappeared, I guess. So your memories went with him."

This is a lot to process, even for Asaka, who had lived through it. She can't begin to imagine how Suiko feels, having been the victim of all of it but remembering none.

"I see."

Asaka starts to pull her hand away, but Suiko seems reluctant to let go, so Asaka lets her. It's the least she can do, for just upending her entire life, again.

"Were we friends?"

The question takes Asaka completely by surprise; after all that, this is what Suiko wants to know? Not _how is any of this physically possible_ or _what kind of nonsense are you trying to feed me_? "W-well, I suppose... to an extent."

Suiko nods slowly. "I thought we must have been, at least a little. Otherwise you wouldn't have told me any of this, right? That's why you agreed to help me learn Vanguard again. You knew me, and my deck..."

 _Don't put me through this again,_ she had told Misaki. She couldn't take the heartache of losing Suiko again.

But Misaki had promised it wouldn't end like _that_ again, and Asaka supposes she should trust Misaki on this one thing that meant the world to the both of them.

They have the chance to rewrite the events of After Link Joker. Shouldn't Asaka try to make things better than they were even Before?

"That's right."

"Mm." Suiko smiles. Asaka flushes red. "You look flustered."

"I-I'm not!" Asaka insists, her face betraying her. "I, I just want... to start over."

"Why start over?" Suiko touches her fingertips to Asaka's face. Asaka screams internally. "Why not pick up where we left off?"

"Which is?" Asaka manages to choke out.

"Well..." Suiko scrunches up her face. Like this, she's almost...

_(Don't think it, Asaka.)_

...cute.

"The world is saved, isn't it?"

No thanks to us, Asaka thinks, but her ability to form words is completely hampered by the fact that Suiko's face is so close that their noses almost touch.

"I think that's a good place to pick up."

It's not much of a kiss; it's simple and quick, a peck of the lips and bumping of the noses, but Suiko's fingertips are still touching Asaka's burning face, and Suiko is _smiling_ about it.

"I see you're picking up on being just as maddeningly forward as before, too," Asaka finds herself saying, despite her body being mostly numb.

Suiko taps Asaka's nose with her finger and winks.

_(Damn it, definitely cute.)_

"It just seemed like the thing to do." Suiko finally straightens up and reaches over for her bag, pulling from it her deck case. "Want to fight?"

 _This_ is far more Asaka's comfort zone. "Sure, but don't think you're going to win on this one just because you've had one victory today."

Suiko just smiles.


End file.
